Friendships come, friendships grow. And damn, is it hard to let them go.

Satoru was your best friend. Had been since the beginning of high school, when you both got enrolled into Jujutsu High. You went on missions together, had lunch afterward together, hung out in his room together, you did everything together. There was barely a day where the two of you didn’t see each other, and if there was, you’d be sure to call each other frequently.

Most of your meetups were initiated by Satoru. A quick ‘Hey, wanna come over?’ on a phone call, or the occasional ‘Let’s get some candy!’ were things that really got the relationship going, making you grow closer. Through every piece of candy, every successful mission, every little moment of bickering, the two of you built a connection. You were inseparable.

Until one day, it just stopped.

Phone calls became more infrequent, your difference in rank would stop you from going on missions together. He didn’t take you to the candy store anymore, and all the times he asked to hang out seemed to slowly fade into the past.

When you noticed, it must have already been too late. Sure, there was the occasional banter, sure, he gave you something for your birthday once. But somewhere along the way, your bond had just… snapped. And Satoru seemed fine with that.

The people asked.

When confronted about it, you often didn’t know what to say, simply stating that ‘he just left.’ When they asked Satoru, he’d say ‘Oh, we just grew apart.’ Grew apart… yeah right. Like you weren’t trying to grasp every opportunity to go back to the way it was. Like you didn’t cry about that past friendship whenever your other friends asked.

To him, you just grew apart.

He’d find new friends. Satoru was a real magnet when it came to attention, after all. People would pay money just to hang out with him once. But they all didn’t last. You witnessed it all from the sidelines, quietly observing as each of them crumbled after a year or less. And when he officially had enough of them?

He’d whine about it to you.

Whenever a friendship crumbled, you were the one friend who was always there then he came knocking on your door, complaining about what a bitch that person was and how many flaws they had anyway.

You would listen, and then he would leave.

Like he hadn’t told your friends he couldn’t hang out because you were there, but that he’d be happy to come another time, a time where you weren’t invited. Like he hadn’t begged for them not to tell you only for you to find out anyway.

And you? You were stupid enough to always let him in. Stupid is what you’d call yourself, others might call it desperate. You did make new friends, or rather, grew closer with the old ones, but something inside you, a little piece of longing for what had been before, didn’t want to let him go. All the years of friendship couldn’t have been for nothing, right? There was a reason he always came back, right? But you knew that was bullshit. You knew he’d just come to you, shit on his ex-friends, and then avoid you until next year. At this point, you didn’t even know if it was intentional or not, as he seemed genuinely oblivious to how you might feel.

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It was another one of those times where Satoru came to you after a friendship crumbled into tiny pieces. He had been sitting in your living room, bitching and whining for at least half an hour about that one guy he thought would be his bestie for life.

”And like- seriously! That guy’s cursed technique was serious shit! And have you seen his behavior? Dude acts like a little venomous spider! Looks like one too.”

He snickered, stuffing another piece of mochi he had brought with him into his mouth.